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Sacred Journeys and Rediscovered Ernies

This was quite a weekend! First, Roger and I competed in our first "official" Comedy Sportz tournament. If you follow our CJSTUF blog, you may remember that back in November, we joined forces with Comedy Sportz Richmond and Richmond Mom for a CJSTUF fundraiser.  We had so much fun that we ended up auditioning for the troop in January and we got in! I will have to share more about the program and what we do in another post, but let's just say we get to laugh a lot, and that's a good thing!


Our Story Corps interview area
On Saturday morning, Roger and I met at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden for a very special event. We were invited to participate in a Story Corps interview promoting the garden. About a month ago, the folks at Lewis Ginter made a call for personal stories that could be used for a special Story Corps promotion. They wanted to know how the garden has made an impact on families in the community.  Roger and I submitted a story about our experiences with Charlotte, including elements of our visit in Christmas 2010.  Our story was one of many selected so on Saturday we completed our interview.  If you have never heard of Story Corps, it is a nonprofit oral history project. Many of the stories are broadcast on Friday mornings on NPR, but all of the stories are archived at the Library of Congress.  


A picture from the garden on Saturday




We had guidance through the entire  process.  Story Corps sent us some guides before the interview on the types of questions we could ask each other.  Then we had a facilitator who recorded the 40 minute interview, checked the sound, and offered ideas for questions if we got stuck.  It was an emotional experience. Roger and I both leaked a few times. But it was really powerful.  We did receive a copy of the interview and may share it at another time. I'm not sure if the garden or NPR or any other group will use it in any way, but I hope they will let us know if they do.  





Some more pictures from the garden on Saturday. Spring is here!

To add to all the emotion, I was cleaning out my car and found one of Charlotte's old toys in the bottom of a reusable grocery bag.  I'm not sure how long Ernie has been there, but it was definitely an old toy. Charlotte used to carry Ernie around when she was about 2 years old. It was interesting to find him again. 


The final thing I did this weekend was finishing editing for the book. I had to make one more pass at grammar, structure, and content before sending it off to the press.  Thanks to so many who have told me that they have already pre-ordered the book! We are currently planning a book release party and hope it will be sometime during the week of May 15th! I think I need to find a special purple sharpie just for signing books. 


I updated my website this weekend and now have some media materials that can be used as PR for the book. I would really love to do some speaking engagements with parent groups, health care groups, libraries, and community organizations once the book is out so please feel free to share my name with people you work with if that is relevant.  Also, someone on Goodreads already gave my book a 5 star rating! Thank you! (I do have some advance reviewer copies out so I'm sure that is why.)  If you are on Goodreads, feel free to add Four Seasons for Charlotte to your "to-read" list.  


Sometime this week, I am planning a special blog post with an excerpt from the book so stay tuned!
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